COVID-19: Expats in Kuwait blamed for spreading deadly coronavirus
76 per cent of participants in survey support foreign workers’ deportation
Cairo: More than half of Kuwaitis, participating in a recent survey, believe that expatriates are the main reason for the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
Nearly 65 per cent of 1,002 Kuwaitis covered by the study attributed the outbreak of the virus mainly to migrant workers while 76.2 per cent of respondents agree that the expatriates should be deported.
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The August 1-8 study was conducted by the Centre of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies at Kuwait University and its findings were published by local media.
The same study found that 39.4 per cent of the Kuwaiti participants in the survey are of the opinion that expatriates should not be given access to free treatment for COVID-19 in the government-run hospitals in the country.
Foreigners account for nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million population.
In recent months, there has been a vigorous campaign in Kuwait to downsize the numbers of foreign workers in the country amid calls for deporting unskilled labourers.
Meanwhile, 23.2 per cent of the respondents quoted in the study believe that the global new coronavirus pandemic is a conspiracy hatched by global powers while 21.1 per cent see the virus as a minor influenza thrown out of proportion by media hype.